October 10, 2012

NIST Random Bit Generation Workshop, Dec 5-6, 2012

NIST announced a Random Bit Generation Workshop December 5-6, 2012, in Gaithersburg, Maryland.  The intended audience includes industry and government.  Registration is limited and closes November 26, 2012.

The workshop will discuss SP 800-90A/B/C (with the primary focus expected to be on the entropy sources in SP 800-90B).


October 3, 2012

SHA-3 winner announced

Congrats to the cryptographers of Keccak for winning NIST's SHA-3 competition.

The short SHA-3 Selection Announcement is worth the read.

I've already been asked the following question:
Q:  When will SHA-3 be an approved security function for FIPS 140-2 cryptographic modules?

The answer is easy, but I do not know the date:
A:  As soon as it is included in Annex A:  Approved Security Functions for FIPS 140-2

Additional info:  Wiki on SHA-3 NIST hash function competition